(Asiad) S. Korea picks up 6 gold medals as final weekend nears
NAGOYA, Japan, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea earned six gold medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, with the final weekend of the competition just around the corner.
South Korea is now up to 30 gold medals, in third place behind China (152) and Japan (58).
South Korea has set sights on winning around 40 to 45 gold medals. With the country not expected to add any medal on Sunday, the last day of the Asiad, South Korea will have the next two days to try to move closer to its goal.
Song Jong-ho, Lee Gun-hyeok and Yoon Seo-yeong of South Korea (from L to R) bite their gold medals won in the men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, Japan, on Oct. 1, 2026. (Yonhap)
Pistol shooter Lee Gun-hyeok was on target for two gold medals in the men's 25-meter rapid fire event. He lifted South Korea to the team gold medal, as he, Yoon Seo-yeong and Song Jong-ho combined for 1,749 points in their individual qualification round.
Then in the individual final, Lee needed two shoot-off rounds to defeat Su Lianbofan of China, after both had put up an Asian record score of 32 points in regulation.
Kim Jong-ho brought South Korea its first archery gold medal of this competition, as he won the men's individual title over Chang Cheng-Wei of Chinese Taipei. Kim scored 149 points in the final, just one short of the perfect score in individual events in compound archery.
Jung Ha-eun of South Korea poses with her gold medal won in the women's individual poomsae event in taekwondo at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Toyohashi Gymnasium in Toyohashi, Japan, on Oct. 1, 2026. (Yonhap)
Earlier in the day, the 14-year-old compound archer Kang Yeon-seo won bronze in the women's individual event with a victory over her teammate Park Jung-yoon.
South Korea swept the men's and women's gold medals in taekwondo's poomsae, the non-contact, pattern demonstration discipline of the Korean martial art.
Kim Jong-ho of South Korea celebrates on the podium after winning gold in the men's individual event in compound archery at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square in Okazaki, Japan, on Oct. 1, 2026. (Yonhap)
Jung Ha-eun won the women's title with 9.3100 points, and Yun Kyu-sung got the men's title with 9.3800 points.
In judo, Huh Mimi, born in Japan to a Korean father and a Japanese mother, captured the women's -57kg gold medal. A descendant of a Korean independence fighter, Huh defeated Ariunzaya Terbish of Mongolia for her first Asiad gold.
These six gold medals are the most South Korea won in a single day during this year's Asiad, one more than the five gold medals it picked up last Sunday.
Huh Mimi of South Korea smiles during the medal ceremony after winning gold in the women's -57-kilogram judo at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 1, 2026. (Yonhap)
Also on Thursday, Nam Ji-sung and Park Ui-sung advanced to the men's doubles final in tennis, reaching the cusp of South Korea's first tennis gold medal in 12 years.
Nam and Park defeated Ho Chenjui and Hsu Yu-hsiou of Chinese Taipei 2-1 (7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 11-9) in the semifinals. In Friday's final, the South Korean team will face Yusuke Kusuhara and Shunsuke Nakagawa of Japan.
The men's field hockey team lost to Malaysia 2-1 in the semifinals Thursday, falling just short of the country's first trip to the final since 2006.
South Korea will face Pakistan in the bronze medal match at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, just north of Nagoya.
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